Biblical Hebrew Forum

[David Eid <eid.david AT gmail.com>]

Dear All,

Ten years after the discovery of Ekron Inscription, may be it is the time to
ask this question: is Ptgyh of the inscription really a name of a deity?

Before we try to give an answer to this question we have to say that we did
not meet the term (Ptgyh) for the first time in Ekron inscription. It has
been mentioned centuries before in wen-em-diamun report and read by the
Egyptolists as Petigayah . According to this report Beder, the Philistine
captive, said to the Egyptian official:

(*At this, I became very distressed. 'Lady Petigayah despises criminals).*

Ptgyh is Petigayah itself. The deference is the nonsexist of the vowels in
Ekron inscription.

We are suggesting that this term is not a deity's name*. *It is, indeed, a
description of the deity which contains the name of the people who worshiped
it. It is not unusual in the ancient inscriptions to describe the deity
without mentioning her name. For example, we know that the Phoenicians used
to dedicate to their goddess by this formula: To the Sidonians Lady, or: *to
*the Lady of Byblus, where the name of the goddess is not mentioned. There
is no need to mention it, because it is well known to her people. If this is
right we suggest the term Petigayah is combined of two words:

1- Pe: which corresponds with the Arabic word Beh. Beh means nobility and
greatness.

2-Tigayah, which is the name of the people. The dedication phrase then must
be read as: to the noble one (lady) of the Tigayah people.

But who were this people?

Tagayah is the ancient Arabian people which was called: Tayayah, Tayaya,
Tayyaye. **

Tayayah is the plural of Taiy .Taiy is a proto-Arab people. It has Arabised
long before Islam and became an Arab tribe. Its ruminant is now, may be, the
largest tribe in the Arab world. Although it became an Arab it kept a
special dialect within Arabic until after Islam called Taiy Language. This
tribe is still living in Arabia, Iraq , Jordan, Palestine and every where in
the Arab world. Its main center is Najd Mountains in the heart of Arabia.

Because this tribe-people was the strongest between the Arabs of the
Peninsula before Islam its name has been applied to the Arabs and Bedouins
as a whole. They all have been called: *Tayayah, Tayyaye*. In the first A.D.
centuries the Arabs were still called Tayayah by the Syrians and by the
Talmud Hebrew. We know the formula from Syrian Christians: *Hirtha de
Tayyaye* (Hira of the Arabs). Indeed this name has been applied to the first
Muslims by the Christians historians like *Thomas the Presbyter*: 
Tayyaye*d-Mhmt
** or* Isho'yahb III of Adiabene:* **tayyaye mhaggre **.* For example,* *John
of Damascus also wrote *(Against the Tayyaye*) naming the Arab Moslems.

Now, as we can see that the only deference between *Tagayah* of Ekron
Inscription and *Tayayah* is the letter *g*:

But, we knew that it was wide spread between Arabian tribes to change the y
into g (better to say j). For example, Qudha'ah tribe used to change the
double y in every word into j. Taiy name in Arabic is with double y. Feqim
tribe used to change every kind of y into j. Arabian tribes in Kuwait do the
opposite until now; they change the j into y. The name must have pronounced
with some kind of *j*. There is a proof is that Taiy name was pronounced
with j some times in some languages. For example, the *Armenians and
Persians* used to call the Arabs as: Tadgik, Tachik or Tazi*, *from the word
Taiy to bring about the letter j. Robert G . Hoyland in *Arabia and the
Arabs from the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam *(London: Routledge, 2001)
suggested that the name of the Tajik people in central Asia came from the
name of Taiy. So Tagayah is a variant pronunciation of Tayayah, Tayyaye.

But what is the connection between the name Tagayah and the name Philistine?


The Philistines did not call themselves Philistines. They called themselves
Tagayah. Philistine is a name applied to them by the others. It is a
combination of the name of the tribe in singular (Taiy) with the main male
deity of this tribe which is called: Feles. Feles was still alive until
Islam. Philistine is: Feles+Taiy =Felestaiy which means: the Feles of Taiy
or Taiy of the Feles.

The Philistine is not only a Semite people; they are from the heart of
Arabia. By reading Ptgyh as a deity's name we missed the chance to uncover
this fact.